From October 22 to December 21 the Mississippi Valley Textile Museum (MVTM) will be hosting the exciting exhibit “Unraveling Tension,” which features the works of Bozica Radjenovic a sculptor who lives and works in Ottawa. She has had several solo and numerous group exhibitions in Canada and abroad. Born and educated in Belgrade, Serbia, she moved to Canada in 1993.
For the works in this show Radjenovic has traded the sculptor’s traditional tools for knitting needles and fibre. The results are sometimes huge works in vibrant yellows, reds and blues that take the everyday and turn it on its head.
The material itself, as well as the names of some of the knitted sculptures, aims to create a feeling of the organic, of warmth, the safety of a nest, a mother’s hug, clothes as protection, and a wrapping of people in material that is symbolic of tenderness, care and safety. Adjusting to a new country, the sculptor sometimes feels that she has lost a firm footing, her safe refuge, and thus some of her sculptures hover in space, interacting with even the slightest air flow.
“My mother used to knit,” says Radjenovic. “Her skilful hands made hats, sweaters and socks. I was always amazed by what she was able to do with a single thread. Most of my current work has been inspired by knitting and unraveling, or making and destroying. Two forces equally strong, or are they? The hand that’s creating is also the hand that’s destroying, and this is a limitless and endless revolution. I believe that there is energy in every object and every stitch made by human hands. The motivation for this exhibition is to bring to light the way in which contemporary sculpture can challenge craft.”
Come see this wonderful work and be challenged and delighted.
A vernissage will be held on Saturday, October 26 from 2 to 4 p.m. The MVTM is located at 3 Rosamond St. E. in Almonte. It is open Tuesday to Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m and Sunday from 1 pm to 4 pm.
Knitting is a way to materialize, with the finest threads, the dreamed and imagined, to express longing, not to forget the past and to create the new… The world of knitting that grows like by cellular division contains vitality and regenerative powers, interweaving of memories of traces of the previous life into everyday life.”
For more information
Michael Rikley-Lancaster
Executive Director / Curator
Mississippi Valley Textile Museum
613-256-3754
curator@mvtm.ca
www.mvtm.ca
